Communicating about raising the retirement age using frames and counterframes

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Vyncke ◽  
Baldwin Van Gorp

Purpose This study discusses the frames that were used in the public debate about raising the retirement age in Belgium from 65 to 67 years. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the prevailing frames in order to develop counterframes that are less problematizing and can be used to bring more nuance to the debate. Design/methodology/approach An inductive framing analysis was conducted, using articles from Flemish newspapers and magazines, published in a two-year period (March 2013-March 2015). This sample was complemented by a convenience sample of texts by various stakeholders. The total sample consisted of 182 texts. Findings The analysis yielded four problematizing frames and six deproblematizing counterframes. They cover both the meaning of work for the individual, and the effect that working longer has on society. Practical implications The overview of the frames can be used as a tool to analyze existing communication, and to bring more nuance to future communication by introducing deproblematizing perspectives into the debate regarding the need to work for a longer period of time. Originality/value In addition to giving an overview of existing frames, the study also constructed alternatives which can be used to deproblematize the issue of having to work longer.

Author(s):  
Andrew M. Yuengert

Although most economists are skeptical of or puzzled by the Catholic concept of the common good, a rejection of the economic approach as inimical to the common good would be hasty and counterproductive. Economic analysis can enrich the common good tradition in four ways. First, economics embodies a deep respect for economic agency and for the effects of policy and institutions on individual agents. Second, economics offers a rich literature on the nature of unplanned order and how it might be shaped by policy. Third, economics offers insight into the public and private provision of various kinds of goods (private, public, common pool resources). Fourth, recent work on the development and logic of institutions and norms emphasizes sustainability rooted in the good of the individual.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise-Lotte Holmgreen

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss why social media frames may exert substantial influence on the image of organisations and even trigger organisational crises. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies the theoretical approaches of crisis, framing and stakeholder theory to examine social media constructions of organisational behaviour. A recent case from the Danish restaurant industry exemplifies the structuring of social media frames and their impact on organisational image. Findings – The results of the study confirm the findings of previous studies but with the crucial addition that the power of social media frames is closely connected to their drawing on basic cultural and social beliefs that unite stakeholders across potentially different interests and identities. Research limitations/implications – The study is qualitative and applies a small dataset. To confirm the findings, further studies need to be conducted. Social implications – This paper sheds light on an issue which continues to be highly relevant for organisations. By gaining insight into the conceptual nature of frames and stakeholder motivations, which guide social-media entries, they may be better equipped for meeting the demands of the public and thus for preventing crises. Originality/value – This is a field of research that continues to develop concurrently with the development and spread of social media. By analysing in detail how frames are constructed, the study contributes to research in the field.


Author(s):  
Phaik Kin Cheah ◽  
N. Prabha Unnithan ◽  
Suresh Suppiah

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the work roles of the Royal Malaysia Police Volunteer Reserve officers.Design/methodology/approachA grounded theory approach was utilized for the generation and analysis of the data. Data were collected through interviews, observations and follow-ups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 male and female volunteer reserve officers and 5 regular police officers aged between 24 and 58 years of mixed socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities and ranking in the Royal Malaysia Police force. Two civilian respondents (spouses of the Police Volunteer Reserve officers) were also interviewed for this study for the purpose of theory sampling.FindingsThe data were analyzed qualitatively resulting in a model of Royal Malaysia Police Volunteer Reserve officer roles consisting of four orientations.Research limitations/implicationsStudy outcomes are discussed theoretically and administratively. The four role orientations identified will assist researchers studying police reserve volunteerism.Practical implicationsStudy outcomes allow administrators to utilize and deploy police reservists in consonance with the four role orientations identified.Social implicationsThis study provides insight into how police reservists conceive of and execute their roles as they negotiate them in relation to the regular police officers they work with and the public from which they are drawn.Originality/valueThis is the first study of police volunteerism in Malaysia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-227
Author(s):  
Andrew Kirk ◽  
Kevin Armstrong ◽  
Niina Nurkka ◽  
Annette Jinks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore English and Finnish paramedic perceptions of the healthcare blame culture, its relationship to complaints, the use of defensive practice and if this impacts on paramedic practice and clinical care. Design/methodology/approach Participants were recruited from English and Finnish ambulance services that have similar organisational and professional scopes of practice. The aim was to gain insight into the similarities and differences between the countries regarding the existence of a blame culture in paramedic practice. Semi-structured focus groups and interviews involving 20 English and Finnish paramedics were undertaken. Qualitative perceptions concerning the reality of a blame culture in paramedic practice and its impact on professional roles were sought. Findings Three major themes that were identified in the thematic analysis included: blame culture and its influences; the impact of complaints against paramedics; and the use of defensive practice within their roles. These data themes were similar for both groups of participants. The majority of participants thought the healthcare blame culture to be widespread and believed that this was likely to directly influence paramedics’ working practices. Originality/value Whilst the impact of blame culture and complaints on the medical profession has previously been examined, this study makes an important contribution by exploring the factors that impact on paramedics’ lives and their practice, within two European countries. The inappropriate use of social media by some members of the public in both countries was a disturbing issue for many participants and was identified as an area for further research.


Author(s):  
Jasmine R. Silver

PurposeThis study extends legitimacy theory by examining individualizing and binding moral motives and perceptions of police.Design/methodology/approachData are drawn from an online survey of the public (N = 961). OLS regression is used to predict global perceptions of legitimacy, as well as department legitimacy and acceptance of force in an experimental vignette that manipulates procedural justice.FindingsThe binding moral motive is associated with greater global and department legitimacy and acceptance of force. The individualizing moral motive is associated with reduced global legitimacy and acceptance of force, and with department legitimacy when procedural justice is low. Perceptions of legitimacy mediate the effects of the binding moral motive on acceptance of force and of the individualizing moral motive when procedural justice is low.Research limitations/implicationsThis study identifies novel antecedents of police legitimacy and acceptance of force (i.e. binding and individualizing moral motives).Social implicationsThis study provides insight into public attitudes regarding use of force.Originality/valueThis study is the first to propose and test a link between binding and individualizing moral motives and perceptions of police.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 2025-2053
Author(s):  
Markus Wohlfeil ◽  
Anthony Patterson ◽  
Stephen J. Gould

Purpose This paper aims to explain a celebrity’s deep resonance with consumers by unpacking the individual constituents of a celebrity’s polysemic appeal. While celebrities are traditionally theorised as unidimensional semiotic receptacles of cultural meaning, the authors conceptualise them here instead as human beings/performers with a multi-constitutional, polysemic consumer appeal. Design/methodology/approach Supporting evidence is drawn from autoethnographic data collected over a total period of 25 months and structured through a hermeneutic analysis. Findings In rehumanising the celebrity, the study finds that each celebrity offers the individual consumer a unique and very personal parasocial appeal as the performer, the private person behind the public performer, the tangible manifestation of either through products and the social link to other consumers. The stronger these constituents, individually or symbiotically, appeal to the consumer’s personal desires, the more s/he feels emotionally attached to this particular celebrity. Research limitations/implications Although using autoethnography means that the breadth of collected data is limited, the depth of insight this approach garners sufficiently unpacks the polysemic appeal of celebrities to consumers. Practical implications The findings encourage talent agents, publicists and marketing managers to reconsider underlying assumptions in their talent management and/or celebrity endorsement practices. Originality/value While prior research on celebrity appeal has tended to enshrine celebrities in a “dehumanised” structuralist semiosis, which erases the very idea of individualised consumer meanings, this paper reveals the multi-constitutional polysemy of any particular celebrity’s personal appeal as a performer and human being to any particular consumer.


Author(s):  
Caroline Pauletto Spanhol Finocchio ◽  
Homero Dewes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to characterize food consumption outside the home and verify the existence of relationships between income, expenditure and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adult individuals in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach – Food expenditure data were used as well as those on the prevalence of overweight and obesity available in the reports from Family Budgets Research carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the years 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. In addition, the authors used the Kruskall-Wallis test to verify whether there were significant differences between the classes of income with respect to the average expenditure on food outside the home. Findings – It was observed that the higher the income of the individual, the greater the expenditure on food outside the home. It was also found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher in individuals who have higher income, particularly among men. Thus, it is suggested that the higher the income of the individual, the larger the expenditure on food outside the home and the greater the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Research limitations/implications – This study used spending on food away from home (FAFH), but the authors know that is need to use other variables like frequency of FAFH and quantities but this data were not available. Practical implications – The study points to the importance of restaurants in the prevention of obesity, since they can offer in their menus foods with fewer calories, and they can also increase the variety and availability of fruits and vegetables. Originality/value – The study discusses the public health problem, obesity, at the same time as it presents the importance of agribusiness in providing a balanced diet for individuals.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Ståle Knardal ◽  
John Burns

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of accounting when managing the institutional complexities of a festival organisation pursuing financial and social objectives. Specifically, it focuses on how accounting can be implicated in handling a festival’s multiple and potentially conflicting logics. Also, through mobilising the concept of institutional work, the following builds on our knowledge of the importance of what people do, in managing an organisation’s institutional complexity. Design/methodology/approach This paper is grounded in a qualitative case study, for which the primary data derives from interviews, plus examination of internal documents and information in the public domain. Findings The festival studied is commercially successful, though ultimately one of its main organisational goals is to maximise donations to charitable causes. Other goals include: offering an alternative community through music, particularly to the young; fostering new and innovative artistry; and nurturing a festival family that is rooted to a large extent in its army of volunteers. The paper reveals how seeking such goals simultaneously requires the handling of logics that potentially can pull in opposite directions. Moreover, it highlights the efforts of festival organisers to maintain coexistence between the different logics, including the utilisation of accounting, accounts and accountability to facilitate this. Originality/value There are three main contributions of the paper. First, it offers new insight into how accounting can be purposefully used to mediate between potentially opposing logics in a complex organisational setting. Second, the paper extends our knowledge of the use of accounting specifically within a popular culture context. Third, the following adds to recent use of the concept of institutional work to understand why and how people mobilise accounting to handle institutional complexity in organisational settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke van den Brink

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge of organizational change towards diversity by bringing together concepts from organizational learning and diversity studies. Design/methodology/approach This longitudinal study was conducted over two years. It involved interviews, observation of meetings and consultation of documentation and the analysis focused on organizational learning. The key research question was how do organizational members institutionalize their individual learning process to change in organizational cultures, routines and structures in a sustainable way? Findings The results showed that there had been learning at the individual level but this did not necessarily mean that participants had been able to transfer their learning into behaviour change. Research limitations/implications The research suggested that training alone may not be sufficient to promote effective organizational change regarding diversity. Additional measures are likely to be required, for example, including diversity targets in performance management plans and reviews. Practical implications In order to achieve greater diversity, organizations are likely to need to use a number of methods to supplement initial training. Social implications This research gives insight into how greater diversity may be achieved in organizations. Originality/value Previous literature understates the complexity of the change processes for enhanced diversity to be sustained in organizations. This study has originality in its focus on organizational learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 452-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maqsood Ahmad Sandhu ◽  
Tareq Zayed Al Ameri ◽  
Kim Wikström

PurposeProjects are an inherent part of implementing strategies. Still, the challenge is to connect a long-term strategy for larger ecosystem development to the individual projects being undertaken. The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of seven project management office (PMO) roles to achieve strategic planning in large society development public organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Design/methodology/approachThe questionnaire survey that was employed for data collected from 450 project members in 19 project-based public organisations having PMO unit had a response rate of 60 per cent. The received data analysed quantitatively by using multiple regression.FindingsThe survey data revealed that PMO enhanced the achievement of the strategic plan for better development of the business ecosystem. The analysis outputs, as expected, have indicated that 95 per cent of the targeted organisations established their own PMO for developing business ecosystem.Research limitations/implicationsDespite there are PMOs hosted by private organisations, the study is limited to the PMO within the context of the government and semi-government organisations in the UAE.Practical implicationsThese findings further utilised in developing the conceptual PMO model that would be flexible to be applied to similar project management methodology in various business settings, as well as pave the way for further scholarly investigations.Originality/valueThis work is both exploratory and causal study, which concentrates on investigating the effectiveness of seven proposed PMO roles (as independent variables) in carrying out the strategic plan (as the dependent variable) of the public-sector organisations in the UAE for the development of business ecosystem.


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